There are few students or academic professionals who would not like to be experts in academic writing. To excel at academic writing is important especially as an impressive academic paper can help you get good and even great grades or reviews.

However, it is a well-known fact that academic writing is difficult and it takes a lot of time and effort to perfect this art. In fact, if you try to get your academic paper published in reputable journals, then you must be prepared to spend hours to just understand the intricacies of formatting and styling.  This article intends to help you learn and understand some basic tips that will help you enter the list of published academic authors.

So these are the five tips to ensure success in academic writing…

1. Follow the Quote with Suitable Explanation
   One of the most common, yet very serious academic writing mistake, is that writers quote a scholar or expert, and just move on to their next point. However, when it comes to making your academic paper impressive, you must give a suitable explanation to the mentioned quote. This is essential, as an apt explanation can help your paper stay focused and lucid.
2. Respect the Arguments of Previous Authors
   When you are working on any academic paper, it is common that you will come across work that might be quite contrary to your point of view on the given topic. However, you must not simply dismiss the works of previous authors; you can in fact mention their arguments or point of view in your paper to add academic value to your paper. You can further add value to your paper, by mentioning why you think that the points of the previous author are not quite feasible or relevant in the current context.
3. Mention Relevant Examples to Support Your Argument
   If you want to make your argument convincing, then you must first assume that your readers are averse to your argument. You must then use strong and convincing vocabulary to help them agree with you on the given topic or subject. If required, you must use relevant examples to strengthen your case.
4. Understand the Reader and Connect the Odds and Ends
   Your readers might not be as intelligent as you assume and hence you must mention where you are heading to through your academic paper. It is crucial that you intelligently connect crucial pieces to make your paper coherent and impressive.
5. Be Precise and Cautious While Making Your Point
   The choice of right words can make a world of difference to the quality of your academic paper. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that precise writing skills can take the quality of your paper to the next level. Avoid general assumptions and claims; also make points that appeal to you. Most importantly, don’t say something if you are not willing to support it with strong arguments and factual data.

The above mentioned tips and ideas will surely help you formulate a decent academic paper. However, if you still require help or affirmation, then maybe you can consider the help of a professional editor or writing services.

Resource Box

There are numerous writing companies that offer custom writing, academic writing services to students who are overwhelmed with the many demands of academic course work. Students who enlist the services of professionals must however, be careful in selecting a suitable writing company so as not to jeopardize their course work.

Editor’s Note:

Sandesh makes some very good points. In fact, if you want to ensure your academic writing success, then you must follow these tips. “A great and informative article that will surely help the struggling academic writer chasing success,” that sums it up, doesn’t it?

If you want to learn more about academic writing, then get free updates from Writers’ Treasure today.

How to Excel at Academic Writing – Five Tips for Success is a post from: Writers' Treasure - The Definitive Guide to Creative Writing Success

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2. An Introduction to Academic Writing
3. Pen and Paper vs. Computer – Which Do You Use?
4. Top Ten Tips to Fight and Defeat Writers’ Block

Of course anyone can.

Anyone can write an essay — it is true. Even a 10-year-old can write one (well, I wrote them in school those days). But how about writing a good essay. A good essay is effective. It has a purpose. It is written with correct spelling, grammar and punctuation. It has an idea in it. And it is a pleasure to read.

In An Introduction to Academic Writing I wrote some pointers on how to write essays. Let’s face it, though, they were very basic and those tips were, after all, just an ‘introduction.’ How about the full stuff?

So how do you write these types of essays? Is it insanely hard? Or ridiculously easy?

Not at all. It’s not hard — but it’s not easy either. Let’s see how to write these fantastic essays…

The definition of ‘essay’

The word ‘essay’ comes from the French infinitive ‘essayer’ which means attempt. By rights, you’re attempting to create a piece of writing which, according to Wikipedia, is often written from “the author’s”—yours—point of view. An essay has also been described as a prose composition with a focused subject of discussion. So let’s improve the definition. An essay is a piece of writing, an attempt to write upon a focused subject, and which is often written from the author’s point of view.

Now we know the definition. Let’s learn how many types of essays there are:

Types of essays

At a basic level, Daily Writing Tips says that there are two kinds of essays: literary essays and school essays. Dig deeper, though, and you’ll find that there are subcategories as well.

All types of school or literary essays aren’t the same. So now we have these categories to file our essays under. These categories are:

• Descriptive essay
• Imaginative essay
• Narrative essay
• Dialectic essay
• Critical essays

As you can see there are many types of essays. Let’s just give you a quick definition on what each type of essay means:

• Descriptive essay: The most basic type of essay. In this, you have to describe what is given in the topic, describe the happenings, the smell or the taste, the feelings, the hopes, anything which they expect. You get the idea. You have to write an account of what happened. To make reading the descriptive essay more pleasurable, devices such as simile, metaphor, analogy and figurative language are used. Examples of these types of essays include: My Home, The Zoo, The Postman, The Farmer, etc.
• Imaginative essay: In this kind of essay, you imagine that you are something or someone else and write from his point of view. For eg. If the topic is given If I were the headmaster of my school… then you have to write from the point of view from the headmaster. You’d say that if I were the headmaster, I would really take the school to new heights (okay, don’t write that, it was just an idea). I would bring this and that improvements and eradicate that and these bad practices. Just finish it with a logical conclusion, and hey, presto! You’ve written an imaginative essay. Examples of these kinds of essays include: If there wasn’t any rain, If I were a butterfly, If I were a cat, etc.

In the imaginative kinds of essays you find a subcategory called autobiographical essays. In this you are given a topic such as “The Autobiography of a Watch” and you have to write a small but detailed autobiography of it. Yes, that means referencing to you as the watch in the first person and narrating all the happenings and the stories of the watch. For e.g. The Autobiography of an Old House, The Autobiography of a Pen, etc.

• Narrative essays: These essays are similar to stories. In these kinds of essays, you are given a topic such as “Two Hours in the Science Exhibition”. You have to narrate what happened in the science exhibition, all the stories, incidents, and projects, whatever. In short you have to narrate what happened. As this is similar to what a true story is, these essays are called narrative essays. For e.g. An Hour Spent at the Railway Station, Two Hours Spent at the Zoo, What Happened on My Last Vacation, etc.
• Dialectic essays: In these essays, you have to propose an argument, then argue it with another argument (also called a counterargument) and in the end, finally knock down the counterargument with some novel words and make your original argument true. These essays remind of lawyers, a bit. For e.g. Rote Method and Understanding learning, etc.
• Critical essays: These essays are also called argumentative essays. For these essays, structure is extremely important, and research and analysis are also required. You are also expected to have strong internal logic and sharp structure, according to Wikipedia. In these essays, you write upon one particular subject or argument and point out all its positives and negatives. In the end, by logical arguments, you reach the conclusion and point out that the argument is true/false and well, you’ve written these critical essays. (I actually didn’t know they were called critical essays. From when I was taught them, they were argumentative for me, because they comprise of arguments, no matter how cool and calm). For e.g. Internet surfing (browsing) advantages and disadvantages.

Now… how do I write an essay?

Phew! So these were the types of essays. Let’s now begin to write an essay, beginning from the topic, then moving on to debate of outlining, then the introduction, then the main body, the writing, then the conclusion and the end. Seems fantastic. But oh… this article is far too much long already. So what are we to do? Make a Part II, of course! It will be up soon, so…

Stay tuned for How to Write an Essay — Part II in which we go to down to the essay writing nitty-gritty and be on our way to awesomeness.

Liked this post? There are more coming soon. You seriously have only two options left by now: subscribe to Writers’ Treasure by RSS or email, or just read the fantastic Writers’ Treasure Archives.

How to Write an Essay — Part I is a post from: Writers' Treasure - The Definitive Guide to Creative Writing Success

Related Articles:

1. An Introduction to Academic Writing
2. An Introduction to Academic Writing – Part II

Still, I will definitely update whenever I get some time. And after all, quality is more important than quality right? So therefore you can still await those superb articles filled to the brim with writing tips (all right, all right, enough bragging).

I actually lost the draft of this post before, due to Human Error and a disgusting trust on Windows Live Writer (ahem, Microsoft). And everyone knows it’s quite difficult to write again once you’ve lost your writing, and the flair is not there. Still I will be trying my best.

Now, on with the show!

Clarity is a hot topic in writing. As you can imagine, nearly every writer and blogger out there is saying his piece on what is, and what isn’t clarity. How to attain it, how to use it. And why it’s just so important.

Hey, even I might have added my piece to it two years ago.

So now you know what clarity is and why it’s so important. You might even have read a few articles from those pro bloggers.

But how to master it?

The answer, my friends, is below, so keep reading!

Master clarity with these oven-hot tips

1. Write directly. This is the best, and the most doable tip of all time. Rambling while writing helps to make your piece longer, and writing indirectly with padding and all that will certainly make few readers happy. That’s right, few. Very, very few, in fact. So what should you do? Write directly to the reader. Imagine if he is in front of you and you are talking to him. How would you talk to him then? Would you use a dozen complex words like ebullient, winnow, titillate and ramble around like mad? No, of course not. So why are you doing it in writing? Write like you talk, but better, so says Brian Clark of Copyblogger. Frankly I haven’t found a better sentence that sums it up better, so I’d urge you to follow what he says.
2. Focus on the subject matter. Important tip, this. Even I was guilty of this mistake before. What I used to do was plan out a subject for my writing, begin to write, write and then start writing unconsciously about a totally different and unrelated subject which made the piece quite useless. Problem was, I wasn’t concentrating and focusing on the subject matter. This should not happen. So when writing, keep a tight focus on the subject matter. Sure, expanding about related and relevant topics you are allowed to do, even encouraged. But totally unrelated ones? I don’t think so.
3. Simple language. This is related to the first point. When writing, use simple language. Not everyone has given a GRE exam or is a language major. So why are you using complex words which no one is bound to understand, long sentences, long paragraphs and everything endlessly complicated? You won’t create brilliant writing that way, as this article shows. Of course, if it is in your niche and topic that you must use complex words, then you are free to do so, no encouraged in fact. But for everyone else, it’s usually a bad idea. And no, nobody will think you dumb for using simple language such as ‘begin’ for ‘commence’ and ‘end’ for ‘terminate’.
4. Learn the nuances of spelling, grammar and punctuation. What does spelling, grammar and punctuation have to do with clarity in writing, you ask? Quite a lot, it turns out. If your writing contains bad spelling, horrible grammar and poor punctuation then it won’t be understood well. Grammar is a tricky animal—there’s a lot of confusion in it, lot of different things such as homophones, homonyms, tenses, clauses etc. So your sentence could be trying to say one thing, and the meaning could come out totally different. You don’t want that to happen, right? As for punctuation—suffice it to say that without proper punctuation, your writing’s readability will always be negatively impacted.
5. Keep reading and writing. Oh, the favourite tip of all time. I know you’ve heard this before, but it bears mentioning again. It’s simply necessary. Of course just writing, writing, and writing will create nothing but a load of bad writing. It’s a case of writing and learning at the same time. So what should you do? Read. Read more. Read better. See how the famous writers are crafting their sentences, how they are making them fantastic and easy to read at the same time. Write. Write more. Write better. It’s not an easy task as these sentences are telling you. But if you follow this rule, then your writing’s clarity automatically or with hard work becomes better as you form your own writing voice. It becomes better and better, until a time comes when everyone can understand your writing without a single difficulty, and that’s when you have mastered this monster, clarity.

Okay, so these were five tips. I’m sure there are others, though. So how about some of you contributing these in the comments section? Oh, and don’t forget to share your experiences, pitfalls or whatever comes to your mind (relevant only, of course).

Liked this post? There are more coming—Writers’ Treasure is officially back. So what should you do? Get free updates by email, RSS or Twitter so that missing out on a latest article is a thing of the past.

How to Master Clarity in Writing is a post from: Writers' Treasure - The Definitive Guide to Creative Writing Success

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Some people say there is no such thing as writers’ block. It’s just an excuse for procrastination. After all, these people say, how many other professions are there in which one can say he can’t work because he has a block? Is there a bricklayers’ block or something? Are we missing something?

I think we can all safely say that there is a thing called writers’ block. It’s not the same for everyone. Some people may be so talented or get extremely lucky to the point that they don’t get writers’ block, ever. That’s a good thing. But the vast majority of writers have had to face writers’ block at least once in their career. At least once, they were attacked by it. But they managed to fight it, and defeat it well too. Can we do the same?

What a silly question. Yes, you heard it right: the answer is a loud “Yes!”.

So let’s learn how, without further wasting time…

Defeat writers’ block with these ten tips

1. Do something else. The best and most common tip ever. It’s always recommended to write regularly, but too much of a good thing is usually a bad thing, and this is not an exception for writers’ block. If your brain gets over-taxed, you don’t have an option to do anything but something else. Go for a long walk. Practise your other favourite hobby. Read a good novel. Do something recreational. It’s the best method and the most guaranteed – you will see positive results.
2. Write something else. Maybe your problem is more genre-related. Maybe you’re writing too much in one genre. That’s what happened to me, and I solved the problem by changing my writing genre for a while (from blogging to fiction). So if you get writers’ block when you get down to write that super duper novel which is so excellent, maybe it’s time to take a break from that and focus on some creative nonfiction. The examples are generic, but the conclusion is: if you get the dreaded block in one genre, try another.
3. Don’t write what you don’t like (and what’s boring). When in writing, you get writers’ block because you’re forced to write something which bores you to tears, then the solution is simple: just don’t do it. In fiction, writers commonly get writers’ block when they write the transitional scenes. So skip that, and act as if nothing happened. You will thank yourself for it, but even better, your readers will thank you for it.
4. Try a different writing style. This is a big one! Writers get tired with one voice if they use it for long, and if it isn’t really good in the first place. So if you’re tired writing formal letters, try writing the informal ones (and vice versa). But it goes beyond voice. Tired of writing the post headline and introduction first in blogging? Well, start with your conclusion and work backwards. Tired of writing in the same word processor with the same font and the same aesthetics (format)? Try a different one. In this way, experiment and try new things, and your block will disappear as if it never existed.
5. Try a different writing medium. Another big one! There are primarily two writing mediums: pen and paper and the computer. So if you’re tired of writing on the keyboard, think as if it never existed and take out your paper and pen. When you write with pen on paper, you don’t get the privilege to erase what you write and keep editing endlessly. That’s a good thing. But the tips don’t stop just here. Even in paper, there are distinctions. First of all there is the good old notebook (or note pad or writing pad). Journals, big exercise books, college books, spiral books and more. Try them all out: variety is the spice of life. Once again, this moves you forward in your battle against writers’ block.
6. Get creative. This is kind of related to the previous point. Writers get tired writing with one style, writing with one pen, writing on the same paper, or just doing what has been done before. So a popular advice is to get creative. Use a funky pen. Try a special handwriting font. Try the black background with the green font. Go crazy with line breaks. The thing is, you must break out of the mold. Do something different, something special. Something which will, once again, help you defeat that writers’ block monster.
7. Cut out the filler words, the needless words, adjectives and adverbs. Filler words like “very,” “really,” etc. cut out the life from your writing, and set the stage for writers’ block attack. As the famous quote from Strunk & White says, omit needless words. That’s not to say that you must omit words unnecessarily. Cut only which is not awesome – keep the great stuff! And there are the adjectives and adverbs. More often than not, they can be replaced by strong verbs. If you do this, not only will your writing get more magnetic, writers’ block will be on its knees and get nearly defeated.
8. Write with heart, not because you have to. And this is related to your heart, and how much you like writing. As I’ve said many times before, you must love writing if you want to be good at it. Don’t think of it as a job. Think of it as something you like to do, as something you can’t do without. You don’t have to write everyday. But just write with heart, write with feelings and emotions, not dry figures (although this is not to say that you shouldn’t write dry figures; as everyone knows they are extremely important). To write with heart you must have a subject that you like, a language that you are familiar with, and words that are your friends. Seems difficult – it is. But is there anything easy in the world of writing?
9. Keep writing. The above tips do work, but another extremely common tip is to, well, keep writing. Keep fighting and keep solving the problems. It won’t be easy and it won’t be quick. But if you love writing, all of this is trivial, isn’t it?
10. ???

See if you can contribute to this article by writing tip no. 10! Don’t forget to leave a comment if you do.

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Top Ten Tips to Fight and Defeat Writers’ Block is a post from: Writers' Treasure - The Definitive Guide to Creative Writing Success

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2. Writers’ Treasure is Back

What you think is easy to understand may not be easy to understand for other people.

What they think is easy could be hard for others, and vice versa.

You write at a level comfortable for you. For you, it is good. For you, it is suitable as well as satisfactory. You don’t want to make any changes to it.

But what if you discovered that some of your readers may not be understanding your content (or, maybe they found it too simple on the other hand)? What if they may be confused with it? And worse, what if, as a result, they would leave your content?

It’s all related with clarity. If your writing can’t be understood, it won’t be read further. It won’t be appreciated and it won’t be remembered. Would you, the writer of an amazing piece, like that?

Of course not.

Your target audience

Who is your target audience? Now, you may know who your target audience is, but do you know how important that fact is? It’s that single fact that shapes up your writing voice (style), your choice of words and indeed your entire writing.

How is this so?

Suppose your writing is meant to be read by young entrepreneurs. They are not used to complex erudite speaking. So if you show off all your knowledge with complicated words and sentences that are not necessary, do you think that they will appreciate it? Do you think they will like it? The answer is a firm “no.”

But then, on the flip side, suppose your writing is meant to be read by computer programmers. Then, if you use simple, easy-to-read sentences with explanations and examples, they won’t be impressed either. They won’t be bothered by computer jargon and stuff. In fact, they’ll expect it.

So it comes to this thing: know your target audience and write according to what they expect. Don’t innovate in this area. Follow the tried and tested method with your own individual voice, and you might just see success.

What does reading level mean?

As I’ve said above, reading level is this – how much a person can read with best understanding (and clarity). For more, check out the Flesch-Kincaid readability tests.

“The Flesch/Flesch-Kincaid readability tests are designed to indicate comprehension difficulty when reading a passage of contemporary academic English. There are two tests, the Flesch Reading Easiness, and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level. Although they use the same core measures (word length and sentence length), they have different weighting factors, so the results of the two tests correlate approximately inversely: a text with a comparatively high score on the Reading Ease test should have a lower score on the Grade Level test. Both systems were devised by Rudolf Flesch. ~Wikipedia

I took the test with the Common Mistakes Made by Creative Writers post and the results were pretty interesting. I scored 79.80 (higher means more readable) on the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Ease on a score of 0-100. So I guess you guys don’t have to search their brains to understand what I write. This is awesome news!

On the Grade level tests my results came like this. The average adult who had sixth grade education could read my writing without problems. This means, of course, that the post was highly readable by nearly every person likely to read it (mostly writers and readers).

If you want to take the test for your writing, go here.

Conclusion

Now, I didn’t mean to say that you had to have a score like mine if you wanted to be successful in writing. For some, it could be the worst score and ever. And then, we come back to square zero – the famous (well, maybe not) sentence of Writers’ Treasure: it depends.

What is the real conclusion, though? It’s this. To succeed in writing, you have to be great at what you do. But not so great that people have difficulty understanding your words, or not so idiotically simple that people feel your language is too simple (that could be a good thing though).

So what do you have to do? You must know your target audience. Without it, you really shouldn’t be writing anyway. (Note: this tip does not apply to writers who are writing for themselves or for fun. Typical disclaimer.) And then, you have to work out the ideal writing voice for that target audience, and do it with your own distinctive style. It isn’t as hard as it looks, though, and it gets easier with practice.

What are you waiting for? Get on the readability tests and determine whether your writing is suitable. If not, make it. It will only get better once you work on it (trust me).

For more great magnetic and irresistible writing tips and techniques, subscribe for free to Writers’ Treasure today.

Be Aware of the Reading Level of Your Audience is a post from: Writers' Treasure - The Definitive Guide to Creative Writing Success

No related articles.

The reason for no posts? Well there wasn’t just one, there was many. First came the school exams, second came vacation (holidays), and third came a cough, cold and fever that happened thrice. Ouch.

But explanations are tiny, aggravating things, not to be bothered about (*as I’m sure you’ll agree*). What matters most is that Writers’ Treasure is now once more The Definitive Guide to Creative Writing Success, not a blog which is dead.

So what can you expect to see in the following days and weeks? A whole lot. Firstly, I prepared (for the first time) the article schedule for Writers’ Treasure. What this means basically is that I prepared a series of post ideas so that there could be no writers’ block (yeah, a post coming on that soon).

The exciting thing about the schedule was that in preparing post ideas, my brain seemed to explode, and I found 106 post ideas to write (all quality ones, may I add). This will probably last the whole of the year 2011 (if I follow it), and therefore, solves the problem of no posts for months (not that that ever was a problem to begin with, mind you).

Now, the only thing left to do is to write all of them

Easier said than done, I know, but I’m up for the challenge. Stay tuned for Be Aware of the Reading Level of Your Audience, the last post of Writers’ Treasure in 2010.

Lastly, have a very merry holiday season. Looking forward to growing Writers’ Treasure to becoming the One Stop Resource for Writers in 2011.

Thanks for reading,

Idrees

Writers’ Treasure is Back is a post from: Writers' Treasure - The Definitive Guide to Creative Writing Success

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1. Welcome to Writers Treasure

Not to worry. These creative writing skills are easy to grasp, easy to know, and easy to master.

(Note: Of course for every person these skills may not be easy to master. Someone will find them easy, and some other person may find them as hard as climbing Mt. Everest. It depends on how hard you are willing to work).

With the disclaimer out of the way, let’s get to the real stuff: let’s learn how to master talent, the most important creative writing attribute!

I hear you saying, “Talent? We can’t master talent. It’s inborn.”

That’s true, but how about a nifty little trick to ensure that you never have to worry about talent even if you don’t have a single ounce of it?

Ready? Let’s get to it, then.

Talent – what to do about it

With talent, people say either you have it, or you don’t. As I said before, that may be true to a certain extent (to a large extent actually) but that shouldn’t put off those who think they don’t have any talent. Get ready for a controversial statement…

Talent helps, but it’s not essential in writing.

What is talent if not love of one’s craft? ~ Melissa Donovan

Some people are naturally talented. They don’t find writing hard. They have a natural flair, and they produce superb work working less than what we normal people do. There’s another term for these people: God-gifted. They make everything look easy, even when it isn’t.

And then there are those who have to work hard to reach their goals. Who don’t consider themselves talented. In fact, people don’t read their work because they’re talented, and they don’t not read your work because you’re talented. Talent almost doesn’t matter here, simply because it’s not important. And why is that?

Those people work hard and write things which people want to read. They practise. They continue to improve their writing. They avoid making the common mistakes which is the sign of any amateur writer. And when they do that, people don’t worry about talent. It assumes secondary importance.

Here’s what to do if you don’t have talent

Simply love your craft. As in that amazing quote by Melissa Donovan of Writing Forward. Although talent is largely inborn, people who love writing (read: really love writing) are often more likely to succeed out there than those who consider it as a “task,” a “drudgery” or another “job.” If you hate writing, obviously people are not going to call you talented. Talented writers love their craft.

The best way to love writing? What a question. Write more. Write even more than anything you can imagine. Cut away the myths and the barriers preventing you from writing. I guarantee… if you do this you will really find a liking, a wanting to write, to express feelings, thoughts or anything you’d like.

I don’t consider myself as a particularly gifted writer, but yet, when people discover my age (if you didn’t know I’m 14 years old) and read my writing they’re always impressed. And why? Not because I’m an expert in writing. (Which I’m not, by the way). Just because I love doing it, I find value in it, and I love expressing my thoughts through this medium.

How to master persistence and patience

This is not like talent. These are skills. These are common sense virtues. Stop being impatient. Accept the fact that the creative writing process will take a lot of time. Accept the fact that you won’t likely get published as soon as possible. Accept even that this could get up to years. And accept even that you may not get rewards for this.

Don’t let that stop you, though. Keep trying. Keep persisting. Innovate. Find out new ways to get better. Discover what makes certain writers stand out from the pack. Try, try, and be yourself. In the end, it’s all about standing out from the crowd. If you’re unique, you’ll have a better chance of success. Even if you’re teeny-tiny special, you may have better odds.

Of course this process takes a lot time. Of course it may not always be a return on your investment. Of course a lot of your writing will not be published.

But for real writers… the above facts are only realistic. They don’t let these stop them from spinning their favourite tale, enchanting you with their poems and quite simply… WOW-ing you. You have to learn how to create that feeling in your readers’ minds, and of course this is not easy. That’s what I am here, of course. (To go along with you seeking the pillar of success).

How to master imagination, ability to face criticism and technical ability

What am I saying, master imagination?! You all have imagination, right? Don’t kid me by saying “no.” Let go of yourself. Be creative. Think, observe the people, and of course the standard advice… read a lot.

Ability to face criticism – now that’s a bit of a hit and miss. Me, I’ve always been lucky to receive only constructive criticism and not any kind of trolls. If you have though, simply move on, and accept the fact that there’s always going to be those kind of people, and the rest are honest, ready to help you.

Technical ability – that’s quite simple. If you know how to use a word processor program (like the standard solution Microsoft Word) then you know how to write on the computer. Future posts will cover web publishing and touch typing, so stay tuned.

Have Your Say

Share your tips, tricks, strategies and more of the creative writing skills in the comments. You can also subscribe for free to receive latest articles in your RSS (or email inbox).

Who Else Wants to Master the Creative Writing Skills? is a post from: Writers' Treasure - The Definitive Guide to Creative Writing Success

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4. How to Master Clarity in Writing

Silly question, I know. But do you know that there are a certain set of skills which you need to master if you want to be an expert in it?

And the questions that comes out of this are: what are these skills? And are they important?

Read on for the first question. As for the second, of course you already know that the answer is going to be:

“Of course!”

To get what “creative writing skills” actually mean for your writing let’s get the big picture first (the definition of creative writing skills).

Creative writing skills – introduction

Creative writing skills are simply things which you need to know, things which you need to learn to have in your personality. If you don’t have these skills, I won’t say that you don’t have a chance of succeeding, but of course it becomes a lot harder.

Some people can get away with not having these creative writing skills and still being successful enough. But exceptions only prove the rule: if you want to be a pro creative writer, you need to have them, my friend.

The good news for those of us who do want to learn them is that they’re easy to master. They’re easy to grasp. And they’re even easy to remember for a long time.

Okay, so enough talk, let’s get into the main stuff. What are these creative writing skills?

The skills which you need to master

Master the following skills and be an expert creative writer.

1. Talent – What, you don’t have talent? I don’t think so. Everyone has talent, whether they realize it or not. After all, what is talent if not passion for one’s craft? Is talent in-born or is it something we have to learn? I believe both. Let me tell you my own story… I was lucky enough to be born with talent. What does this mean? Means I was lucky enough to already have a passion for writing. But that doesn’t mean that I didn’t have to work hard to improve my writing. I did. Everyone has to. If you don’t believe that you have “in-born talent,” just keep writing. Everyone, even a crappy writer (means all of us) can improve their writing easily.
2. Persistence – The old debate: skills vs. talent comes to mind. Which is essential? Both again. So what does skills mean? Persistence. Determination. Desire to succeed. A creative writer must have persistence. Success is, after all, merely the absence of failure. If it doesn’t work the first time, no matter. Second time, no matter. Third time, no matter. Fourth time, no matter. Millionth time, likewise. I guarantee… you will see success if you try.
3. Patience – There’s no place for “get-rich-quick-seekers” in this world, and likewise, if you have a mentality for “get-published-quick” or “get-success-quick” it won’t work. Period. One has to be patient in writing, goes without saying. (After all, patience is the ticket to success).
4. Ability to face criticism – I know, criticism isn’t great to hear. It’s so nice to hear praise, but when you hear criticism instead, you get all hot and afraid at the same time. But criticism is good. It’s actually great for writers, especially if it gives constructive advice. But once in a while, trolls arrive and harsh criticism is thrown on you. Instead of hitting back, the best thing to do is to face it. So you must have the ability to face criticism.
5. Imagination – Imagination is so helpful in writing that even I would sing its praises for days, they still wouldn’t help. Have trouble conjuring ideas? You need to have a bright imagination. You need to imagine… you need to ignore the naysayers. The well known advice is to think outside the box. Just apply it.
6. Technical ability – Of all the six creative writing skills, this is quite the easiest. I know what you’re thinking… “what’s technical ability doing in a post about creative writing skills?” Because you need to have some basic ability if you want to write. Pen and paper may continue to work well… but it’s good to also learn the basics of typing (touch typing), web publishing and more.

Phew! Think I got all the creative writing skills. What, you’re telling me that I missed one? I’m all ears… share it in the comments section.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, you really need to know these skills. They aren’t all that hard. They don’t even have anything to do with confusing technical jargon (yeah, if you want to know it, this is my pet hate). So go check whether you have all of the creative writing skills. If you passed all tests, congratulations! And if you didn’t, that’s okay too: keep practising.

Want to learn how to master these skills?

No worries – I’ve got an article coming up on Wednesday that will clear all confusions of how to master these skills. While this post teaches you what the creative writing skills are, part II will teach you how to master them. So stay tuned.

UPDATE: The post is now up! Read Who Else Wants to Master the Creative Writing Skills?.

For more creative writing tips, subscribe to Writers’ Treasure today. You can also leave a comment below.

Creative Writing Skills: Do You Have Them All? is a post from: Writers' Treasure - The Definitive Guide to Creative Writing Success

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1. Who Else Wants to Master the Creative Writing Skills?

That is all fine, but the question that comes to our mind is: which of them is better, and which should I target?

As with all writing answers, the answer to the first question is: “there is no such thing as ‘better’ in most situations.”

And the answer to the second is: “it depends.”

Now, before you throw something at me, let me elaborate. (That’s what we do here, after all).

Print writing

Print writing is the older form of writing. It isn’t an interactive form of writing (means there are no links, no multimedia, no multilayer form of interaction). Print writing is typically longer and more formal than web writing (once again, the word “typically” implies not always the case). And there’s one very important point…

Most of your written works will not be published in print.

What does this mean? It means that even you are outstandingly good, it’s very difficult to break the mold and get published, whether with a publisher (you know, the old fashioned ones), a magazine, newspaper etc. You could write a 1000 works of art and have only 10 published, and that’s a fact.

Whereas in web writing… an average guy could still publish his works online (e.g. at his own blog, feature an article at an high trafficked site, online magazine etc). It makes a big difference whether your work is published or not, and if you’re only trying print writing, you’ll have to come to terms with the fact that like it or not, most of your writings will not be published.

Examples of print writing are: novels, nonfiction books, articles, essays, etc.

So for whom is print writing suitable?

Writers who are good. Writers who do not fear from facing criticism. Writers who are patient. Writers who write something which is suitable for everyone, i.e., publisher, reader, themselves etc. And most importantly… writers who want to improve their writing.

It’s also no secret that print writing is more profitable per word, but unless you’re Stephen King or J.K. Rowling, you’ll most likely to work hard and wait for a lot of time to see your work in print. It isn’t even remotely easy.

For good to great writers who don’t want to wait so much, there’s a good alternative. Guess what, it is web writing (alternatively called internet writing). Is it suitable? Read on…

Web writing

You might not think that the Internet is a market for readers, but you’d be wrong. In fact, for several writers the Internet is a better market than print because of a variety of reasons such as stability, less learning curve and a whole lot more. (Note that I didn’t say “most” instead of “several.” As is the common advice – the whole theme of what we teach here on Writers’ Treasure – what works for one writer may not work for you, and so on.)

But let’s backtrack. What is web writing?

The answer: it’s simply writing which is published on the World Wide Web. As mentioned earlier, it could be on a blog or a website of your own, as a guest post or featured article on a popular website or a magazine, etc.

The great thing about web writing is that you don’t have to wait for a year or two to get published. You can simply open up a blog and publish your articles, essays, stories, whatever you like. There isn’t a specific time given for your works to be published. (E.g. Even if you get your novel published, you’re still given a period of nearly two years to wait to see it in the shelves).

Okay, so that’s one benefit. What about others? The one I really like (and I think that you will too) is that there is a lesser learning curve. Learning curve is a thing you’re most likely aware about and dislike. To every software there is a learning curve. To every market. For the print, the learning curve stretches to years and years. And what about the Internet?

You only need to understand some things which have a minimal learning curve (writing software, web publishing models, getting your article featured on websites, guidelines and more).

While I’m not saying by any means that they are easy steps to master (if you want to know, even I haven’t fully mastered them yet) but certainly they’re easier than the steps to master if you want to succeed in print writing. For more, read this excellent internet writing post by Writing Journey.

One more thing: when you write for the Web there are different things you should keep in mind. Web readers don’t read. They skim, read headlines, and then look around if you’ve got anything interesting. If you haven’t, your place is as silent as a mountain. So if you haven’t yet… make your content better.

So which is better? Which do I need to target?

Ah, the inevitable question. As I said at the beginning, there’s no right answer. Only you can answer that question. Take away the basic points of both and analyze them for your situation. If you feel that print writing is more better for you, go for it. And vice versa for web writing: go for it.

Why am I not giving a better answer? Because there are too many variables involved. Both are hard and both are easy. It depends on you, the writer. Your niche, your expertise, your gut instinct. The final takeaway: Research, analyze, and then choose which of them you should target. If you do the research and the analyzing well enough, you should have an answer.

What’s coming up next?

We haven’t scratched the surface when it comes to web writing, but to give your scroll bar a rest, that’s all for today. But wait… there’s a notice.

This post is the first of the Writing for the Web 101 series. Stay tuned for more, and if you want to keep updated, subscribe for free by email or RSS. You might even want to leave a comment… but only if you want to.

Web Writing vs. Print Writing is a post from: Writers' Treasure - The Definitive Guide to Creative Writing Success

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1. A Schoolboy Author

A year or two later however, we got a new computer. I improved my typing skills (and learned touch typing). I also learned to use programs like Microsoft Word for writing. Henceforth I was using this almost exclusively for my writing. My notebooks, which were once so full that there wasn’t even space to copy down a phone number, now were empty. What happened?

The thing that happened was that I had changed my writing medium from pen and paper to the computer.

But of them is better for your writing? Which is better – pen and paper or the computer keyboard?

Pen and paper

Of course, once upon a time this was the only option for anyone wanting to write (the computer is new, after all). But now it has its rival, a competitive rival. Has it lost its respect?

Not at all. A lot of people still write using pen and paper. They say it’s faster, and that could be for you if you don’t know how to type fast. And writing with the hand is more easier as well. If you don’t know how to type properly, the fingers will first find it painful, whereas writing using the pen is conventional and doesn’t add stress. This is a point to keep in mind.

One good rule of thumb is to write shorter pieces (short stories, poems, essays etc) using pen and paper and longer pieces (novels, autobiographies, courses) on the computer.

Fact: Many poets still write on paper. The older generation still writes on paper. Paper is not a thing to be ridiculed as a medium of writing. Do your fingers get tired by typing too much? Try pen and paper instead.

The computer

The computer was preceded by the typewriter, I know. But as so few people use typewriters these days I have to chosen to compare pen and paper with computer. Let’s see its benefits and disadvantages.

It certainly has some benefits:

• It’s faster for those who are comfortable typing (e.g. when writing a novel)
• The finished work looks more professional due to formatting (when you use pen and paper you have to make sure that your handwriting is excellent and legible)
• It becomes possible to share documents on the internet and collaborate
• It becomes possible to publish it (on the Internet).

But as usual, a thing which has advantages will also have disadvantages. In this case, they are:

• Long hours of typing is bad for our body’s health: the fingers as well as the eyes get tired
• For those who can’t type comfortably writing on the computer is like swimming in an ocean
• The document loses the “personal touch.” For example when you have to prepare a project for your school then printing it out of the computer is not good because it loses  your credibility (one can wonder, did he really write this?) Using pen and paper on the other hand, one doesn’t face this problem.

So as you can see there are some strong points both for and against the computer and pen and paper. Which should you use? There’s no right answer to this question. Someone may feel comfortable typing for hours and someone may shudder at the thought of it. Someone will be happy with using pen and paper and someone will be discontent. Someone likes this and someone likes that.

But you have to make your own decision for yourself. Which do you feel comfortable using? Which is better for your situation? Which is appropriate for your writing? Answer these questions and you will discover which writing medium you should use.

A side note: Which do I use? Both. For longer pieces, the computer. For academic writing and shorter pieces, the good old pen and paper. These days I might use computer more, but I like both equally. Just my opinion.

Over to you

I really wish I could setup a poll so you could vote, but it doesn’t matter; just tell what you use in the comments. Do you like the computer more? Why? Is it because of increased efficiency or is it just because of necessity? Which is more comfortable according to you? When you use one over the other, what reasons are there behind that? And the biggest: which do you use more?

And I’ll be seeing you in the comments…

Liked this post? That’s great. Why not leave a comment below so that we know what are your opinions?

Pen and Paper vs. Computer – Which Do You Use? is a post from: Writers' Treasure - The Definitive Guide to Creative Writing Success

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